The present invention relates to an image recorder having a function of digitally reading image information printed on a document and recording only a marked portion of the image information on a paper.
Many of modern digital copiers or similar image recorders have a function for allowing a person to mark a desired portion of image information printed on a document and recording only the marked portion on a paper, i.e. an image editing function. The current trend in the art is toward the diversification of the image editing function. For example, in a digital copier with an image editing capability and having a page memory, a desired portion of image information carried on a document is marked and then shifted or otherwise edited, and then the edited image fragment is recorded on a paper in the form of a cut sheet of a regular size or a roll having at least a predetermined width. Hence, even when the marked area of a document to be recorded is extremely small, the size of a paper to reproduce the marked area thereon remains the same. More specifically, in the case of image recording which is not aided by magnification change processing, a document and a paper are usually of the same size or area and, therefore, an image portion marked on the document is of course smaller than the paper with respect to the area. This wastefully leaves a substantial area of a paper or recording simply blank. Such a problem is especially pronounced when use is made of a document and a paper each having a large size.